ABSTRACT
In Taiwan, prior to the 1970s, pollution management referred to simple control of pollution through regulatory measures. Examples include the specification of emissions standards, regulation of emissions, and creation of permission systems. For this reason, the social cost induced by environmental pollution was not reflected properly in policies, and an enormous amount of labor and other resources were wasted in policy execution. Also, the effect of these regulatory measures was limited because of a lack of incentives for polluters to proactively contribute to the reduction of pollution. Stemming from environmental awareness, most environmental acts are not only progressive in spirit, but also integrate modern environmental control mechanisms. However, the effect of these regulatory measures has been limited, since the economic incentive in which the polluters positively improve the pollution status is lacking. Therefore, the Taiwanese government has examined the environmental policy systems of European and American countries and Japan since the 1990s, and now is introducing the economic instrument under green budgeting approaches. This led to Taiwan’s pollution control fee systems.
